August 14th, 2023 — 🔥 Base overtakes Optimism in DAU — SBF goes to jail

Get an overview of crypto market liquidity from August 7th to August 14th, 2023.

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Top Crypto Market Headlines:

• Bankman-Fried placed in custody of US Marshal after judge revokes bail — 8/11/23 (link)
• Coinbase Layer 2 Base Overtakes Optimism in Daily Active Users as Friend.Tech Hype Soars — 8/11/23 (link)
• Worldcoin Regulatory Scrutiny Grows as Argentina Opens Investigation — 8/10/23 (link)
• Temasek, Sequoia Capital, Softbank, leading VCs face lawsuit for “abetting” FTX fraud — 8/9/23 (link)
• Microsoft partners with Aptos, will explore digital payments and tokenization — 8/9/23 (link)
• Coinbase’s Base mainnet officially opens to the general public — 8/9/23 (link)
• UK’s Central Bank Forges Ahead With Plans for a Systemic Stablecoin Regime — 8/9/23 (link)
• Bitstamp raising funds for European derivatives, Asian expansion: Bloomberg — 8/8/23 (link)
• Blockchain.com obtains major payment institution license in Singapore — 8/8/23 (link)
• Police Raid WorldCoin Cryptocurrency Warehouse In Nairobi — 8/7/23 (link)

The Week Ahead:

Tuesday 8/15:

• GDP Growth Q2 (Japan)
• Industrial Production YoY JUL (China)
• Unemployment Rate JUN (UK)
• Retail Sales MoM JUL (US)

Wednesday 8/16:

• Inflation Rate YoY JUL (UK)
• FOMC Minutes (US)

Friday 8/18:

• Inflation Rate YoY JUL (Japan)
• Retail Sales MoM JUL (UK)

Weekly Insights Report:

Base, Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network, was finally launched last week as part of the exchange’s bid to spur the development of millions of new dApps. The company says it has no plans to launch a native token on Base and will prioritize supporting network-native developers. According to Dune Analytics, the 1-week old L2 has already overtaken Optimism in daily active users, driven by the hype around Friend.Tech, a social network rumored to be releasing a token airdrop. ~$213 million has been bridged to Base since inception.

Sam Bankman-Fried will await his criminal trial in October in a New York jail after his bail was revoked last week. He was previously under house arrest with his parents in Palo Alto. Speaking of SBF, Eighteen leading VC firms, including Temasek, Sequoia Capital, and Softbank have been named as defendants in a class-action lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for their links to the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. The lawsuit, filed on Aug.7, alleged that the investment firms were responsible for “aiding and abetting” the FTX fraud. The suit claims that the defendants used their “power, influence and deep pockets to launch FTX’s house of cards to its multibillion-dollar scale.”

The scrutiny on Worldcoin continues. The Argentine Agency for Access to Public Information (AAIP) has initiated an investigation to ascertain the legality of its data collection practices. It wants entities like Worldcoin to register with the organization, provide information about its data processing policies, and indicate the purpose for collecting sensitive data and its retention period. The AAIP did not confirm whether Worldcoin complies with the standards. This is the latest in a series of actions taken by many government privacy watchdogs after Kenyan authorities raided Worldcoin’s Nairobi warehouse, citing a “lack of clarity on the security and storage” of residents’ eyeball scans. Company officials have paused ID verifications in Kenya as they “work with local regulators to address their questions.”

The Bank of England is moving forward with plans to regulate systemic stablecoins, cryptocurrencies tied to other assets’ values. The rules aim to ensure customers do not lose funds in these stablecoins and that companies that leverage them can ensure continuity. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 has endowed the BoE with the powers to establish this regulatory regime.

According to Bloomberg, Bitstamp, the longest-running crypto exchange, has reportedly been attempting to raise funds since June. The funds’ planned usage is for European derivatives in 2024 and expansion into Asian markets. CEO Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux confirmed, however, that “Bitstamp is not for sale, and we are not actively looking to sell the company.”

Bitstamp also suspended trading of Axie Infinity, Chiliz, Decentraland, Polygon, Near, Sandbox, and Solana for US customers, with all seven tokens being named by the SEC as securities.

On a weekly basis, BTC is up by 0.8% and ETH is up by 0.7%.

Other Major Crypto Headlines:

• SEC files Ripple appeal in challenge to XRP securities outcome — 8/9/23 (link)
• Bitstamp to halt trading in Polygon, Solana and other tokens in the US — 8/9/23 (link)
• Coinbase to partially buy back $1 billion bonds at a premium — 8/8/23 (link)
• Huobi plans to list PayPal stablecoin ‘soon’ — 8/8/23 (link)
• Cathie Wood expects another delay for ARK’s proposed bitcoin ETF — 8/7/23 (link)
• The ‘crypto degen crowd’ has settled in on Coinbase layer-2, Base — 8/7/23 (link)

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